A WordPress migration is complete only when the new server has the right files and database, every important URL and integration works, search engines can crawl the intended site, and you still have a tested way back. Make a restorable backup first, rehearse the move on staging or a hosts-file preview, test the destination before changing DNS, and keep the old installation available until production traffic and transactions are stable.
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Define the move before touching the live site
Write down exactly what is changing. A server move with the same domain and directory is materially simpler than a move that also changes the domain, protocol, subdirectory, or uploads path. Your plan should state the source hostname, destination hostname, expected DNS changes, cutover window, content-freeze period, and rollback trigger.
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- Public domain, URL structure, preferred protocol, subdirectory, and upload path.
- DNS provider, current records, TTL values, CDN, firewall, and any proxy or caching layer.
- Database name, database user, table prefix, PHP/runtime version, database version, and server limits.
- Active theme, child theme, plugins, must-use plugins, license keys, scheduled cron jobs, and server-level tasks.
- Transactional email service, sender domains, analytics, Search Console properties, consent tools, payment systems, APIs, webhooks, and other third-party integrations.
- Critical URLs, redirects, XML sitemaps, robots.txt rules, canonical settings, and any custom server configuration.
Save this inventory outside the server being moved. It becomes both a build specification for the destination and a checklist for post-cutover verification.
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Build a backup you can actually restore
The WordPress.org Advanced Administration Handbook advises that a move should begin by backing up the WordPress directory, images, plugins, other site files, and the database. Treat that as a minimum, not a suggestion.
Copy the complete file tree
Archive the entire WordPress directory, including wp-content/uploads, themes, plugins, configuration, and hidden server files where applicable. Include custom files outside the standard directory if the site uses them: server rules, Nginx snippets, deployment scripts, certificate references, or a separate uploads mount.
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Export and verify the database
Export every WordPress table, including custom plugin tables. Keep the dump in a format your destination can import. Open the archive and inspect the dump rather than assuming a successful transfer means a usable backup. A backup is only useful if you know where it is stored, have the credentials needed to restore it, and have confirmed that the files and SQL are readable.
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Capture a recovery point and a delta plan
Schedule a content freeze for posts, pages, comments, orders, memberships, and profile changes. If a full freeze is impossible, define a delta window: record the exact time of the final database export and identify how edits made afterward will be copied to the destination. Take another database backup immediately before DNS changes.
No universal backup-retention or recovery-time number is established for WordPress migrations. Set retention and recovery targets according to your site’s transaction volume, regulatory needs, and ability to recreate data.
Prepare and protect the destination
Match the runtime and capacity
Create a staging or preview copy with compatible PHP and database versions, adequate storage, SSL capability, and credentials for database, SFTP or SSH, and the control panel. Match memory limits, maximum upload size, execution time, and scheduled-task behavior where those settings affect the site. Confirm that the destination can hold the current database and uploads with room for growth.
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Keep the clone out of search results
Use a hosts-file override, provider preview URL, or protected staging hostname to test the destination before public DNS points to it. Require authentication where possible and enable a noindex control on the non-public clone. Do not rely on robots.txt alone to protect a private staging site; an access restriction prevents accidental exposure of content and credentials.
Record DNS before changing it
Export or copy the current A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, and verification records. Note the DNS provider and TTL values, and lower the TTL ahead of the planned cutover only if your provider honors that change in time. DNS behavior differs by resolver and network, so there is no honest single propagation duration to promise.
Choose a transfer method that fits the site
| Approach | Best fit | Strengths | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual files and database transfer | Teams comfortable with SSH, SQL, DNS, and server configuration | Full control over files, tables, permissions, and timing | More opportunities to miss a custom file, setting, rewrite, or integration; you must design your own verification and rollback process |
| Migration plugin or service | Standard single-site moves where guided checks are valuable | Can package transfer, URL replacement, preflight checks, HTTP verification, and rollback assistance | Compatibility, upload limits, licensing, and multisite support vary; inspect what is included before relying on it |
| Managed WordPress hosting with staging | Owners who want provider-run staging, backups, and operational support | Often supplies a repeatable staging-to-production workflow and infrastructure monitoring | Less control over server details and a need to confirm how DNS, cron, email, backups, and custom integrations are handled |
Whatever method you choose, retain an independent backup and a rollback plan. A tool does not remove the need to test the actual site.
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Move the installation in a controlled sequence
- Lock the test state. Put the destination in staging or preview mode, block indexing, and note the source database export time.
- Transfer files. Copy the complete WordPress directory and any external uploads or server configuration required by the application.
- Import the database. Load the verified SQL dump into the destination database, preserving the table prefix and custom tables.
- Set database connectivity. Update
wp-config.phpwith the destination database name, user, password, host, and table prefix. Check file ownership and permissions afterward. - Test the unchanged URL first. If the domain and path remain identical, verify the homepage, representative content, login, permalinks, media, and cache behavior before making any URL edits.
- Change URLs only when required. If the domain, protocol, subdirectory, or upload path changes, update the WordPress
homeandsiteurlvalues and perform a serialized-data-safe replacement. - Rebuild routing and caches. Save the Permalinks screen to regenerate rewrite rules, flush application and object caches, clear CDN or reverse-proxy caches, and regenerate any image or search indexes required by plugins.
- Inspect settings that store paths. Check menus, widgets, media references, theme options, plugin settings, custom code, and cron definitions for the old hostname or directory.
Update URLs without corrupting serialized data
A domain or path change is more than a text substitution. WordPress and plugins can store PHP serialized arrays in the database; changing string lengths without updating serialization metadata can corrupt those values. The WordPress.org migration guidance lists migration plugins and WP-CLI as safer options than a blind SQL replacement.
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The documented WP-CLI pattern is:
wp search-replace 'oldurl.com' 'newurl.com' --skip-columns=guid
WP-CLI searches database rows and intelligently handles PHP serialized data. Review the target tables before execution, especially on multisite, and run a dry run or equivalent preview supported by your workflow. Skipping guid avoids rewriting post identifiers that are not intended to change merely because a site moved.
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Check the replacement scope
- Search for both the old hostname and old path, including protocol variants and escaped values.
- Review options, post content, metadata, widget settings, plugin tables, and custom tables rather than assuming all data is in standard posts.
- After replacement, search again for residual old-domain references and for accidental changes to external URLs.
- Confirm that canonical tags, Open Graph URLs, feeds, sitemaps, attachment links, and email templates use the intended public URL.
Complete launch QA before DNS cutover
Use the preview hostname or hosts-file mapping and test the destination as if it were live. A preflight check should include direct HTTP verification and a crawl, not just a visual look at the homepage.
Content, navigation, and media
- Open the homepage, representative pages and posts, categories, tags, author archives, search results, feeds, XML sitemaps, and attachment or media URLs.
- Test menus, breadcrumbs, pagination, downloads, image variants, lazy loading, video embeds, and responsive layouts on more than one viewport.
- Crawl for 404 responses, redirect chains, redirect loops, broken internal links, mixed-content warnings, and references to the staging or old domain.
Accounts and transactions
- Log in and out, reset a password, and test registration, roles, comments, memberships, and profile updates where applicable.
- Submit every important form and confirm validation, notifications, autoresponders, spam controls, and transactional email delivery.
- For commerce or subscription sites, test cart, checkout, payment callbacks, refunds or status updates, webhooks, invoices, and customer emails in the appropriate test mode.
Infrastructure and search controls
- Confirm the HTTPS certificate, HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect, preferred hostname, canonical URLs, security headers, caching, and error-log visibility.
- Ensure staging noindex and access restrictions are active during testing, then plan their removal at launch. Verify the production
robots.txtdoes not block important content. - Check cron jobs, scheduled publishing, background queues, API credentials, analytics, consent tooling, CDN behavior, firewall rules, and monitoring.
- Compare important URLs and metadata with the old site. Keep an export or notes of critical titles, descriptions, status codes, and redirects so a change is detectable after launch.
Cut over DNS and preserve a rollback path
- Take the final database backup or delta immediately before the switch and confirm the destination contains it.
- Put the source site into the agreed freeze state. Keep it readable, but prevent new writes that would diverge from the destination.
- Change only the DNS records required for the move, using the recorded values as a reference. Do not delete mail or verification records accidentally.
- Verify resolution from more than one network or resolver. DNS caches can return old or new answers at different times.
- Repeat smoke tests on the public hostname: homepage, key templates, login, forms, email, payments, redirects, HTTPS, and robots or sitemap behavior.
- Leave the old site intact and available for rollback until the new site has passed the agreed stability window. If severe data loss, transaction failure, or widespread routing errors appear, restore DNS and follow the documented reverse procedure rather than improvising.
Do not publish a universal propagation estimate. Resolver caches, TTL handling, and provider behavior determine when different visitors see the new address.
Monitor the first days after moving
Watch the systems that reveal a migration fault fastest: uptime checks, web-server errors, PHP and database logs, crawl reports, form submissions, email delivery, analytics traffic, and conversion paths. Fix redirect, missing-asset, and mixed-content issues before cosmetic refinements because they affect access and indexing.
Review 404 logs and redirect targets for at least the period in which old links and cached pages remain in circulation. Check scheduled jobs at their actual run times rather than assuming a successful manual page load proves cron works. Confirm that analytics and consent events are still recorded on the production hostname, and compare important traffic or transaction flows with the pre-move baseline without treating normal variation as proof of a ranking change.
When the site is stable, remove temporary staging credentials, preview access, noindex rules, and test payment keys. Rotate any credentials exposed to contractors or copied into temporary files. Document the final server, DNS records, runtime versions, backup location, monitoring contacts, and rollback steps.
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Special cases that change the checklist
| Situation | Additional work |
|---|---|
| Same domain and path | Focus on complete file and database transfer, permissions, cache flushing, permalink regeneration, media, email, and integration tests; URL replacement may not be needed. |
| Changed domain, protocol, subdirectory, or upload path | Update home and siteurl, perform serialized-data-safe replacement, map old URLs to new ones with redirects, and verify canonical, sitemap, robots, metadata, and internal links. |
| WordPress Multisite | Review network and per-site settings, domain mappings, uploads, and network tables. The official handbook specifically identifies wp_blogs, wp_site, home, siteurl, and fileupload_url as areas to inspect. |
| Low-traffic brochure site | A short, explicit content freeze and a small representative test set may be practical, but still verify forms, email, redirects, SSL, indexing controls, and backups. |
| Commerce, membership, or community site | Plan a carefully timed freeze and test orders, account changes, payment callbacks, email, scheduled jobs, webhooks, APIs, and concurrent writes. A file-only check is not sufficient. |
Common failure symptoms and the first checks
| Symptom | First checks |
|---|---|
| Homepage works but internal pages return 404 | Save Permalinks, inspect rewrite rules, confirm the web server points to the correct document root, and check that the requested path was not altered by an incomplete URL replacement. |
| Images or CSS load from the old host | Search database content, widget and theme settings, generated CSS, CDN configuration, and cached HTML for the old hostname; then purge caches. |
| Users cannot log in or reset passwords | Check HTTPS and cookie-domain behavior, site URL values, salts and configuration, email delivery, and whether a security or cache layer is serving stale responses. |
| Forms submit but no notification arrives | Inspect SMTP or transactional-email credentials, DNS authentication records, plugin logs, server egress restrictions, and spam or bounce reports. |
| Orders or webhooks fail | Verify callback URLs, firewall allow-lists, API keys, TLS certificates, cron workers, and that the destination is not still marked as a staging environment. |
| Search engines see the preview site | Remove public access or add authentication immediately, confirm noindex behavior, inspect robots.txt and canonical tags, and request recrawling only after the production hostname is correct. |
Final sign-off checklist
- Restorable files and database backup verified, with a known restore location.
- Destination runtime, storage, SSL, credentials, and scheduled jobs confirmed.
- Content freeze or delta process completed and final backup captured.
- URL replacement reviewed for serialized data, with old-domain references checked.
- Representative content, media, accounts, forms, email, payments, APIs, webhooks, and cron tested.
- Redirects, canonical URLs, robots.txt, sitemaps, security headers, caches, and logs verified.
- DNS records documented, cutover tested from multiple networks, and the old site retained for rollback.
- Temporary access removed, credentials rotated where necessary, and final operational documentation stored.
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